JEDDAH: There is no indication of an imminent volcanic eruption that warrants evacuation of people in Al-Ais village in Madinah province, according to a top official at the Saudi Geological Survey (SGS).
Fresh tremors were reported in the area about 240 km northeast of Madinah on Dec. 18. Al-Ais residents and those from neighboring villages had already been evacuated following a series of tremors in mid-April. This was followed by another tremor measuring 5.4 on Richter scale in May. The evacuees started returning home in October after the area was declared safe by SGS.
“From our observations and measurements at Harrah Al-Shaqa in Al-Ais, it is obvious that the magma is trying to find its way from a deep chamber up to a possible surface eruption through an area of weakness in the earth’s crust,” head of the SGS Zuhair Nawab told Arab News.
“Thank Allah, for now there are not any indications of an imminent volcanic eruption,” he said. He added there was no cause for alarm despite recent seismic activity, particularly as population density in the region was sparse.
“Seismic activity at Harrah Al-Shaqa is at its normal rate these days and we monitor between 20-30 small earthquakes per day, but these are not felt by people.” He described these particular tremors as swarm type activity that usually repeats itself in cycles over a long period of time. “It should be noted that even the two recent events are of small magnitude and were felt in a very limited area.”
Nawab said the Harrah Al-Shaqa was a volcanic region and attributed the tremors earlier this year to magmatic activity.
He added SGS would continue to monitor seismic activity in the area to establish the depth of magma and possible movement within the crust. He stressed that there was no need to evacuate people in the area and that residents could live quite safely, apart from a restricted area within a radius of about 10 km from the epicenter area.
